For a while, we'd had the idea that we wanted to check out Lake Lanier. The lake is notorious for drownings and deaths, as well as having a submerged town beneath it. There were only two ways we could pull this off - find a boat to rent that would allow us to be out overnight, or camp along the lakeshore. We opted for the latter.

Our campsite at Don Carter State Park was in the woods, with a short path down to the lakeshore. We were near the boat dock, so it was loud during the day and early evening.

The first part of our investigation started just after sundown, but after about an hour of standing and asking questions and inviting the dead of the lake to speak to us, we began to agree the continuing noise around us was going to corrupt our audio recordings. We retired back up to the campsite and hung out by the fire for a while. At around 11PM, everything had gone quiet except for the cicadas, so we grabbed our gear and headed back to the shore.

We set up our Flux tool about a foot and a half from the waterline. Kristin held the dowsing rods, Sam had the FLIR, the K2 was somewhere. We began to ask questions again, and named a specific individual a friend had told us about, who had drowned three years prior on the lake. Kristin's dowsing rods began to cross slowly, seemingly in answer to questions, but we had nothing to confirm it with until...

We came around to asking whether the dead would like anything, and then made some suggestions like "a beer," and when we came around to offering "a coke," the dowsing rods crossed. We decided to go with it, and Erin went up to the camp to get a cold Coke and a plastic cup. She brought the can of Coke and a cup with ice down to the shore. We placed the cup in front of the Flux - outside of its sensor range - and poured Coke over the ice. We left the can next to the cup.

The Flux began to beep and flash on both sides. The Flux has motion sensors on two sides, as well as temperature sensors. We moved the Coke around, and the Flux around, and found that if the Coke was removed, the Flux would stop reacting. When the Coke was replaced, it would start again. At one point, the cup tipped over and all the Coke and ice fell out. We refilled the cup with the can of Coke, and the Flux did not react. We asked if our guest would like some more ice, and the dowsing rods slowly crossed. So, Kristin ran up to camp to get some more ice. Once the ice was added back to the cup, the Flux began to react again, the same as before.

Since the K2, which we had placed next to the Coke once the activity began, was not reacting, we were concerned there was some kind of fluke happening. Perhaps the icy Coke was cold enough to set off the temperature sensors. So we agreed someone would test it at home and recreate the scenario with the same cup, with ice, and a cold Coke. When recreated, the Flux did not react. Not a peep.

Unfortunately, we received no audio confirmation besides the recording of the Flux beeping - no EVPs. We have no context about this encounter except to assume that someone who came to our call really wanted a cold Coca-Cola over ice on a summer's night. We were glad we could oblige.

Listen to the beginning of the Flux reacting below:

Few, if any, Civil War sites are more infamous than the Andersonville Prison. The suffering endured on this small patch of land is beyond imagination. Even if no ghosts were there, we knew the residual presence of that much misery should still be detectable, even if subtly through our own emotions.

We undertook the three hour drive, and stopped first at the museum where we learned all about the specifics of the prison. How it was built, the hospital tents outside, how the ditch that split the prison into two halves flowed with contaminated water. How some prisoners had no choice but to drink it, risking dysentery rather than death of thirst.

Today it remains an unpleasant place, despite its relative beauty. It is impossible not to see the tall wooden walls, or the rows of dirty tents, even though the ground is an empty, pristine, mowed green. 

We wandered the entirety of the site, inside the boundaries of the prison and outside where the hospital tents were. At Andersonville, the saying was, if you went to the hospital tent, you would not come back. Men became deathly sick living in the close quarters with dirty water and little food.

The feeling of the place was overpowering. We could feel the unreality of the suffering.  And during our travels, we had our DVRs along with us as usual. It seems the ghosts of Andersonville did not let us down. One sensitive reported being asked "Darlin', what happened to your hair?" - Her hair was very short. 

We also caught this EVP, as well as other less clear murmurs.
​

Andersonville was a humbling experience. Standing in the face of all that death almost felt like we were intruding. But strangely, whoever was there felt welcoming.

This post is a long time coming, and we apologize for the delay.  There's just so much to say about Blood Mountain Cabins that we don't know where to begin!

Our journey to BMC began on April 20th, 2019.  We carpooled from Kristin's house up to Blairsville, GA, in the Appalachian Mountains.  We had been asked to investigate by the owner, Matt, who was concerned about activity that had been affecting him, his family, and the guests in the cabins.

The activity included:

• Lights flickering on and off in bedroom, that stop when Matt enters the room.  Starts flickering again when he leaves.
  
• Traci was tapped on the shoulder while doing laundry and when she turned around, no one was there.
  
• Coworker staying in the downstairs apartment said he was awoken by his bed shaking.
  
• At approximately 3:30 AM, loud sounds along the floor in daughter’s room, leading to the door, which swung open.
  
• A Native American man reported seen in Deer and Wild Boar Cabins.
  
• A report of waking up and being held down and unable to move in Deer(?) Cabin.
  

We arrived at BMC and went into the main house to meet Matt and talk about what was going on there.  He told us all about the activity in the main house as well as reported in a few of the cabins.  After getting the low-down, we went to Deer Cabin to unpack.  We would be spending the night in one of the cabins with reports of haunting.  We got all our stuff stowed away, and our equipment unpacked.  As the sun was going down, we returned to the main house with our gear, ready to get started.

We first sat around the table in the downstairs, which was a combination sitting room and general store for guests to come in and buy whatever they needed.  We set up the K2 and flashlight on the table, and began our EVP session.  Matt had decided to join us, and he was sitting near the K2 and flashlight.  Before long, the flashlight began to blink seemingly in response to our questions.  (You can see it in the video.) 

We first sat around the table in the downstairs, which was a combination sitting room and general store for guests to come in and buy whatever they needed.  We set up the K2 and flashlight on the table, and began our EVP session.  Matt had decided to join us, and he was sitting near the K2 and flashlight.  Before long, the flashlight began to blink seemingly in response to our questions.  (You can see it in the video.)

Next, we moved to the laundry room.  We didn't catch anything here on the first trip.

Then, we moved to the downstairs bedroom where Matt's coworker was staying for a short time.  The flashlight interacted again, responding especially to questions about Matt's wife, Traci. 

We investigated the rest of the house, and captured a bedroom door opening and closing.  We tested everything we could think of, opening and closing other doors, configurations of other doors closed while being opened and shut, wind, footsteps, and nothing would cause the door to behave the way it did on our security camera.  (You can see this in the video too!)
​

Next we moved to Wild Boar Cabin to investigate reports of activity there.  Upon entering, we were all hit with an overwhelming sense of malaise.  The feeling was very unpleasant, and we could not imagine spending a night in that cabin (which we did do on our next visit!)  We later recommended that the cabin have a full cleansing.

It's here that we caught some interesting EVPs, such as these Class Bs.

^ In the above EVP there is a muttering voice.

^ In this EVP  there sounds like a voice saying "oh gosh".

We also investigated Wolf Cabin, and last Deer Cabin, where we stayed for the night.  We caught EVPs in both Wolf and Deer cabins.

In the end, we feel there is activity at Blood Mountain Cabins.  There appears to be a specific entity in the main house, and perhaps a different entity or entities in the cabins.  We recommended that Boar Cabin be cleansed, due to the extremely negative energy feeling of the place.  On our next trip, we stayed overnight in Boar before cleansing it in the morning.  Check out the video up top, and stay tuned for Part 2!

On September 28th, 2019, we carpooled down to Warm Springs, GA to investigate the Hardaway Cottage.  We had been in contact with Beth and Mark Trimble for some time, with Erin and Meridith having visited a month earlier to discuss the house and its history.  We were finally going to investigate the Hardaway, and we were so excited. 

​The reports of activity were very interesting, and included:

• Objects going missing, occasionally to turn up in strange places like the middle of the hallway
• Painting moving in bedroom
• Blinds opening and closing in bedroom
• Footsteps on or around the stairs and upstairs
  

When we got to the Hardaway Cottage we began to set up our four infrared security cameras, and get the rest of our equipment ready.  We brought:

• EMF (ElectroMagnetic Field) meters such as the K2 meter
• A mini-Maglite that can be configured for entity interaction (check out the video linked later in this blog).
• Each member has her own Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) to capture EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena). 
• A handicam which takes nightvision footage. 
• A 4-camera Sansco security camera system, with infrared nightvision which allows to keep an eye on 4 rooms or 4 angles at the same time.
• A digital camera to take still photos.

We were waiting for Kristin, who had not carpooled with us, to arrive so that Beth could give us a tour of the house.  Kristin got a little lost on the back roads around the Hardaway, where GPS fails, but she found the house in the end.

When we were all set up, and Kristin had arrived, Beth gave us a detailed tour of the house.  You can see parts of that tour in the video below:

We did our first EVP session in the window seat bedroom, where the reports of the blinds moving and picture shaking had come from.  

We caught a couple weak EVPs in this room, and we'll share one with you here.

 Next was the "art deco" room.

We did not catch any EVPs or K2/flashlight activity in this room, but Erin did see a shadowy shape move by the door, and a floating black spot near Kristin just before her video camera malfunctioned.

We investigated the children's room next, with no results, then took a break in the screened patio to discuss our experiences so far.

Next we investigated the downstairs, again with no results.

Finally, we came to the basement, where things got very interesting very quickly.

We seemed to have interaction with the mini-Maglite, with an entity appearing to turn the flashlight on and off in response to our questions.  You can watch the entire thing in the video linked above!  

While we did not get many usable EVPs at the Hardaway House, we did capture the fascinating interaction with the flashlight in the basement.  BCPI feels, based on what we did find and on the eerie feelings in the upstairs rooms, that there may be a haunting at the Hardaway House.  We would love to go back and visit again, and try to collect more evidence to corroborate what we have found so far.

On the steamy summer evening of July 13th, 2019, we carried our equipment up the sidewalk to a beautiful house set among other beautiful old houses.  We were in the heart of southeastern Atlanta, to investigate a house occupied by several college roommates who had been having experiences with a potential entity they called "Julia".  

We unpacked our gear, and Erin and Sam went downstairs to the basement to do baseline while Meridith and Kristin stayed upstairs to hear the clients' experiences and take notes.

The reports were varied, and sounded very interesting:

• Three different people witnessed the signs in the basement shaking loudly
  
• A spot in the basement upsets the dog, who barks at it late at night
  
• Lights turning on and off
  
• Similar dreams from different people of a woman in a white dress
  
• A series of three scratches on the wall late at night
  

We set up the IR cameras with two in the basement, one in the downstairs bedroom and one in the upstairs bedroom.  We began the investigation in the basement, and the clients joined us for the EVP session.  We like when the clients join us, because whatever energy or entity may be present might respond better to someone they are familiar with.  

We spent about 30 minutes in the basement, asking "Julia" questions.  We had a green grid pen light pointed at the wall that began flickering as if in answer to our questions.  Unfortunately upon further investigation at home, the device was still behaving oddly and we had to chalk it up to a malfunction.

We performed EVP sessions in the downstairs bedroom and upstairs bedroom, and collected plenty of recordings and footage to review.  

Upon review, we found we had no convincing EVPs or video footage.  Our sensitive also felt no impressions and got no messages, and thus we had no evidence of any sort of haunting in the house.

We are glad we were able to provide some peace of mind to the clients.  While we can't be sure "Julia" is not there, our extensive investigation turned up no sign of her.

The Covington House is a white, split-level suburban home, on a subdivision street corner.  It is backed by trees, and a solid 6 foot wooden fence.  The client invited us to investigate the house due to her experiences as a child.  This house was her childhood home, and her parents still live there.  As a child, the client experienced the intense feeling of being watched while in her bedroom.  The feeling was so severe, she could not sleep, and eventually moved down into the basement where she experienced relief from the sensation.  The client's mother occasionally still hears disembodied footsteps in the upstairs hallway, near the client's old bedroom.  

We began by setting up base camp with the monitor and camera box.  Next, we placed our four 1080p night vision cameras: one in the client's old bedroom, one looking down the hallway, one looking out onto the front porch landing, and one facing the living room.  We had all of the reported active areas covered.

Evidence review revealed nothing out of the ordinary.  There were a few sounds, but we decided they were either house settling noises, or breathing/moving noises from the team. 

Although we didn't catch any audio or video evidence at the Covington House, it was a good investigation to help the client, and to test out our new equipment.​  Next week, we will be doing an overnight investigation at Blood Mountain Cabins in Blairsville, GA.

Sloss Furnaces was a pig iron and steel production facility, built in 1881.  Unsafe working conditions, long hours, and lack of worker protections led to a number of violent accidents and deaths over the years.  It's no surprise that hauntings have been reported for decades, and that Sloss Furnaces is a hot destination for paranormal research groups.  Being only two hours away, BCPI could not resist checking out this amazing historic site.​

March 9th, 2019 was a very windy day in Birmingham, AL.  The wind whipped through the stacks and boilers, occasionally causing an eerie whistle.  Alongside the wind, there was a lot of background noise, with the nearby highway and almost constant freight trains running past.  While we did get a couple opportunities to do EVP sessions without other people around, most of our audio recordings were compromised, either by the wind, or the background noise.  This investigation was a daytime trip because reserving Sloss for an overnight investigation is quite expensive.  We believe activity can be just as intense in the daytime as overnight, so we weren't worried that being there during the day would affect the outcome.

The first room we checked out was the Power House. As we stepped onto the landing after climbing the stairs, we were hit with a sudden wave of intense psychic activity.   Our designated sensitive, Amber, wrote down what she was feeling.  The feeling was so intense that we all talked about it while it was happening, which is usually against the rules.  We prefer that if anyone experiences a psychic event, they write it down, and don't talk about it until after the investigation, so that other members' opinions are not affected during the investigation.  But this time, the feeling was so heavy and so terrible that we couldn't help but talk about it.  We are unaware whether this particular room had a death associated with it, but we would not be surprised if one or more people died there.  You can read more about each member's personal experiences in a forthcoming post.

We set up to do an EVP session in the Power House, placing our DVRs on a saw table.  Among other things, we asked if anyone had something bad happen to them in the room.  We hoped to be able to confirm the psychic experiences by capturing a relevant EVP.  Unfortunately all of our audio recordings from this session were compromised by background noise.  We did catch some interesting "whispering", but can't be sure whether it is part of the background noise or the strange watery sounding backdrop this particular DVR had.  (EVPs are best listened to with headphones.)​

Next, we set off to find the Boilers.  On our way, we encountered interesting sights that made for great photos.  We stopped to check out different locations, with our DVRs running the whole time just in case, but we did not encounter that deathly feeling on the way to the Boilers.  We stopped at a small brick building and tried to see inside, but it was too dark.  We decided to use the night vision on the handy cam to peek in.  When Erin asks if she should use the night vision to look in, a voice appears on the audio recordings.  Listen for it at about 5 seconds:

We found the Boilers, and set up for another EVP session.  At this site, several of us again felt the strong negative feeling that we felt in the Power Room.  For some of us, it was even worse.  After investigating, we learned there are myths and stories about people falling, or even being pushed, into the molten metal, where their bodies would dissolve completely.  There are many gruesome stories about different locations all over the facility, but that is best saved for an upcoming article.

Overall, we had a great time checking out this historic site, and introducing ourselves to its ghosts and memories.  Right next to Sloss Furnaces is a brewery called Back Forty Beer Co. where we went to have a drink and talk about our experience, and try to shake off that feeling of violent death.

Upcoming Articles:
Personal experience write ups by all members in attendance.
Brief History of Sloss Furnaces and its reported hauntings.

Only two of us knew the reason we had come to investigate what we chose to call "the Creekwood House" on February 9th, 2019. The three others had not been looped in. This was so that anything they picked up intuitively wasn't something they remembered being told by Meridith and Erin.
​
The client, a 33 year old woman, described the situation as this: The Creekwood House was her home from about 13-23 years of age, and was still her mother's house. Sitting in the small tile-floored office as a teenager, the client would often feel like something big and black was standing in the doorway, staring at her. It caused a deep sense of fear and dread, and she often would wait for it to go away before leaving the room. She couldn't even bear to look toward it. The office was connected to the living room by double doors, and the client could have left through those doors instead, if not for her sense that the living room felt so creepy as well. The big black figure was never seen with the client's eyes, though admittedly she never tried to look very hard at the doorway when it was there.  She simply "knew" it was there.

In addition to the large black figure based in the house, the client reported the feeling of being watched, resulting in intense fear, while outside at night.  It seemed like whatever it was watched from a specific place in the woods near the corner of the house.

Upon arriving, the client had asked us to park on the street, and walk up the long driveway to the house. The house was a white and green Cape Cod, set back against dense woods. The deer and squirrels rustled the brush nearby. Once all BCPI members had arrived, and greeted the client and her mother, we made the house's living room our Base Camp. The living room was a cozy-looking place, decorated with lighthouses and a Thomas Kincade painting. There was a full reclining sofa and a reclining armchair, a fireplace and wooden rocking chair. The cozy welcoming aesthetic was completely at odds with BCPI members remarking how uncomfortable and downright creepy the living room felt. Apart from the office, the rest of the house did not share this peculiar on-edge feeling. We performed a baseline EMF test to see if any of the electrics were seriously out of balance and therefore influencing us.  High EMF can cause hallucinations, illness, and discomfort.  But after running the K2 meter all over the room, everything seemed normal.

After doing a couple interviews of members to release on our social media pages, we settled in for our first EVP session of the evening. Kristin set up a flashlight to require only the tiniest touch to turn the light on, to serve as something we could ask the entities of the house to interact with. ​Erin set up the nightvision camcorder to have an angle to see the whole team, only to find out that when she turned the lights off, the nightvision was not working. It had worked perfectly during testing but now was only showing a black screen.  Erin attemped to fix the problem, but nothing seemed to help - not turning it off and back on, making sure the battery was secured, or turning nightshot on and off again.  She gave up and the camera was left to record the black, with a tiny light from the K2 showing on it. The EVP session proceeded.

​During evidence review, we discovered an EVP that only a couple of our DVRs picked up – someone saying something just after Erin says the camera is set up. Only Meridith and Erin's DVRs picked up the voice, and this was also around the time when Meridith began to feel warm hands on her shoulders (the room was rather chilly, so the feeling was very distinct).  What does it sound like to you?

With the session in the living room concluded, we moved to the office/sewing room. This was the room where the client used to feel something watching her. It used to have a large oak desk and bookshelves, but now had been converted into the client's mother's sewing room. There was lots of equipment, cloth and patterns and there was standing room only for the five of us. Erin tried the IR camera again, but no luck. We asked questions for a while, before deciding to take a quick break. Erin took the IR camera and switched out the battery, even though the other one was full. The camera worked, and even worked once switched back to the original battery. The nightshot worked perfectly the rest of the night.

We moved upstairs to the client's old bedroom, and everyone agreed that compared to the eerie living room and office, this room felt so much nicer and safer. The client did report that she used to carry a cat with her up to her bedroom because "cats keep spirits away". We did a baseline and an EVP session in the bedroom, and decided to start chatting about random things a bit, because occasionally entities will chime in on a simple chat.

That session concluded, we moved out to the front yard, and stood exactly where the client said she always feels something watching her. The video from this section is lost, seemingly never turned on to begin with. We stood in the woods, in the pitch black. The K2 meter and two DVRs lay on the pine straw and leaves in front of us. We asked several questions, but it seemed as though nothing was there at all. Sam got the feeling that something had moved away from us toward the fence. Plenty of deer and smaller animals live in that area, so it's hard to be sure what was seen or heard.  But, when we reviewed the recording, we found this from the time we were outside:

It would seem someone was indeed outside the house as well as within.  What do you think it's saying?
​
Our sensitive team member, Amber, picked up a lot of information without knowing anything about this site previously. For example, in the house, she noticed a big, black presence that caused feelings of deep dread and anxiety. This was very accurate to what the client reported experiencing.

Throughout the investigation, we seemed to have trouble with our electronics, from the night vision camera not working, then suddenly working again, to strange electric sounds and surges picked up through the DVRs.

There appears to be definite activity in the house and on the land outside of it.  We have no way to tell at this point whether it's once-human entities, or land spirits, or maybe even one of each.  Regardless, there seem to be two different entities, one inside and one outside.  Returning to the Creekwood House in the future might be a good idea, to see if we can get to the bottom of it, now that we know where to focus.

Members' Notes:

Kristin S.
Creekwood was an interesting location. I did not have any personal experiences and did not have the same feelings as some of my teammates, but we did end up getting some compelling evidence when I thought for sure we wouldn't have any. Just goes to show that even when things appear quiet, there may just be something waiting for the opportunity to communicate.  

Amber D.
My first impression of the Creekwood House was that most of the rooms were quite welcoming, sans the living room and office/sewing room. Those rooms had a different feel altogether. When we started our first EVP session, I got the creeping sense of a tall, broad, dark shadowy figure behind me, whispering in my head. A sense of dread and lightning trickled down my spine, and my body felt frozen with a foreign invader that seemed to be an exo skeleton preventing me from moving. The room was very cold, but I was quite warm. The feeling took about 30 minutes to subside, slowly diminishing over that time, but didn’t leave me completely until we finished our EVP sessions in the living room and office.

I felt like we were being watched in the bedroom from the window facing the side yard, where we did our last EVP. The room itself felt safe, but it felt like something was creeping on the outside of the house. I felt the same in the sewing room, with the big windows facing the yard.

Sam M.
I came to the Creekwood house with low expectations; I was hoping to experience something paranormal, but I was prepared to sit in the dark and not feel/see/hear anything, especially since this was my first investigation. That did not happen. From the weird glitches that happened with our equipment to feeling extremely weird and heavy in the living room to feeling watched while we were outside, the Creekwood house delivered and was an incredible first paranormal investigative experience. I am glad that our sensitive Amber gave me a grounding necklace before the investigation, it made me feel safe during the weirdest moments of the investigation.